The Citizens' Summit

This month, Ben Page, Chairman of Ipsos MORI's Social Research Unit, led a discussion among ordinary Britons on key issues facing the UK with a Citizens' Summit at Downing Street. Here he highlights the key issues.

Government is in trouble. Not just this government, but anyone aspiring to run Britain. An ageing population puts greater demands on public services, and as we commute further, work longer hours, and live ever more diverse lives, people expect fast, flexible, responsive public services that are built around their needs, not those of the people delivering them. People are less deferential than ever, and trust those in power less. All parties agree that we are reaching the limits of what the state can do alone.

What do the public think? They make no compromises in their demand for flexibility and responsiveness in public services. Nine out of 10 of the participants wanted public services that are open some evenings and weekends, even if that means they would sometimes be shut during the working week. They like the idea of uncensored citizen commentary on local schools and hospitals on websites.

At the same time there are widespread concerns about a lack of individual responsibility in society. One of our themes was how government should work with citizens over such issues as parenting, antisocial behaviour or carbon emissions.

The public are subtle about sanctions, they do have a strong sense of the individual rights and responsibilities which politicians of all parties talk about, but they are cautious about reinforcing these with rewards and sanctions. Rewarding and punishing parents to make them more responsible for their children's behaviour was initially supported; but as the discussion proceeded, support grew for parenting classes, communities working together with mentoring schemes and similar initiatives.

This links to one of the strongest themes of the research - the British sense of the need for 'fairness'. It is expressed in anger and frustration at benefit fraud and people abusing access to key services, but at the same time, there is a real sense of the need to avoid stigmatising people.

So, for example, two-thirds opposed giving priority to non-smokers and moderate drinkers when it comes to expensive operations or treatments, but by the same token, nine in 10 conclude that those who kept missing GP appointments without cancelling should only have access to a 'turn up and wait' service.

And as well as fairness, and respect, there is a strong sense of a public in search of more 'tenderness'. This means services that don't just hit the targets, but where people feel looked after - 'public services where staff treat you like they would want their own mother to be treated' was how one put it.